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Pandemic

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Insurers settle 17.94 lakh COVID-related health insurance claims for Rs 21,837 crore in 15 months: Govt

replying to a question on cryptocurrency trading, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said currently, all entities regulated by RBI have been advised to carry out customer due diligence process in line with regulations governing standards for KYC, Anti Money Laundering, Combating of Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and obligations of regulated entities under PMLA.

Coronavirus likely to lock India’s women out of job market for years

A report by the Centre for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University found that 47% of women workers who lost their job between March and December – before the second wave of the virus hit in April – were made permanently redundant. That compared with around 7% of male workers, many of whom were able to either return to their old jobs or take up independent work like selling vegetables.

Many life insurers need a new core system:Celent & Equisoft Report 

Celent’s APAC insurance technology expert, Max Ang said, “The insurer of tomorrow will be a technology-focused enterprise, augmenting current experiences with digital tools and automation, and with collaborations with partners for success. The next-generation insurer will serve, and customers will engage, based on the evolving needs required.”

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Poorer countries to get 120 million $5 coronavirus tests, WHO says

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the manufacturers Abbott and SD Biosensor had agreed with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to “make 120 million of these new, highly portable and easy-to-use rapid COVID-19 diagnostic tests available over a period of six months”.

“This will enable the expansion of testing, particularly in hard-to-reach areas that do not have laboratory facilities or enough trained health workers to carry out tests,” Tedros said.

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 Health ministry launches web portal for updates on COVID-19 vaccine development

“The data will serve as an invaluable tool for formulating appropriate patient management strategies, predicting disease severity, patient outcomes etc,” the ICMR said in a statement.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, said, “The portal provides useful and important information related to vaccine development, ongoing clinical trials and progress made in this area locally and globally at regular intervals. Today, in the times of coronavirus pandemic, vaccine development is watched very closely. Thus, it becomes important to showcase the status of vaccine development in the country.”

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Travellers from Dubai, UK mainly behind Covid importation into India: Study

The study has also found that infected cases from Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh played less role in spreading the disease outside their communities. Whereas infected people in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, and Karnataka played a significant role in the local transmission, and some of them caused interstate transfer too.

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Lloyd’s of London alerts India Inc on rising “Intangible Risks”, launches new solutions for Pandemic Risks 

Specific to SMEs, Lloyd’s has developed ReStart, a potential non-damage business interruption solution (loss of revenue without a physical damage trigger) for future waves of COVID-19. The solution is focused on giving certainty of non-damage business interruption coverage initially to SMEs by pooling limited capacity across a number of Lloyd’s market participants. The product will support reopening of SMEs, offering a range of limits that ensure it is affordable for customers, without requiring any government support,

Lloyd’s is also working on a proposed ‘after the event’ insurance product framework, Recover Re, which would provide immediate relief and cover for non-damage business interruption, including the current COVID-19 pandemic, over the long-term. This framework could be implemented in any country where the government has the resources and industry commitment to support it.

 

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India caps prices of medical oxygen amid rising COVID-19 cases

“Due to the absence of a price cap on liquid medical oxygen, manufacturers have hiked prices to fillers,” the government said in a statement, referring to off-takers such as hospitals and clinics which use the oxygen.

To ensure that the oxygen is available at reasonable rates, the government has capped manufacturers’ prices at 15.22 rupees per cubic metre (CUM), the statement said.

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